Whirlwind 60 Hours

Whirlwind 60 Hours

It is 11 PM in Watanoha tonight and one of us finally has a chance to blog about what we have experienced. With our red-eye flight on Wednesday night and travel and luggage arrangements to go two hundred miles north of Tokyo, there hasn’t been an opportunity to reflect and type. Our bodies have been taxed, certainly (we started clearing a debris-ridden area for a festival scheduled on July 7 immediately upon our arrival), but there is also a lot of excitement. We have made new friends, both Watanoha residents and volunteers around the globe. (By the way, did you know that July 1 was Canada Day?) What has been most searing is to see the devastation firsthand. Towns saw a reduction of their population by the hundreds and even thousands. This afternoon we saw huge concrete buildings on their sides, literally washed away from their foundations. Debris piled up the size of neighboring hills. And then there have been random discussions with random people–the iced coffee and soft ice cream proprietor with the little girl born literally weeks after the tsunami had hit, Kirita -san, the fisherman with the sunburnt cheeks who had gone to the mass funeral of the hundreds that had not survived like he did. In spite of this all, there has been signs of optimism–the new construction and economic revival, areas that our hosts at GMT are committed to support. Since we are finally hooked up to wifi, we hope to post more photos and observations by various team members. Until the next post, love in Christ from your tech-challenged scribe, Fukuchi.